Zombies
by baby-rose15
Summary: A potential ending for Undead Again. "Oh god Castle, you should have seen your face." "My face! Too bad we didn't have a mirror because you looked like we were in a horror film."
1. Chapter 1

Zombies

They went out for a drink after this case. God knows they needed it, this was definitely going down as one of the weirdest cases they've ever had, and they've seen their share of bizarre from cryogenically frozen to fairy tales and spy games, but the undead was a whole new level of crazy.

But now they're sitting at the end of the bar, just the two of them, with a pair of tumblers in front of them, amber liquid sending fractures of the dim light in the bar onto the shiny mahogany. The rest of their party had departed not long ago but she'd insisted on buying him one last drink, just the two of them before calling it a night.

She takes a sip grinning up at him as he recounts their first encounter with the student film production, "Oh god Castle, you should have seen your face!" Her eyes are sparkling with laughter as she turns to smile at him, her hair falling over one shoulder.

He makes a play a looking aghast, "My face! Too bad we didn't have a mirror because you looked like we were in a horror film."

"We were!" She protests on a laugh, slamming the tumbler back down to the bar without taking a sip.

It's his turn to grin as he waves a finger at her, in disagreement. "A zombie film Beckett. There is a difference between a horror film and a zombie movie," he tells her, putting on a snobby film critic air just to tease her.

"Oh really?" She's not buying it though as she lifts an eyebrow questioning his statement with a grin, "What exactly is the difference?"

You can read it on his face; he doesn't actually have an answer for her. "Well…" he chokes trying not to fold on his bluff but she's looking at him like he's the most entertaining and silliest person she's ever meet and it's such a good look on her that he really fails to come up with anything better than, "A zombie movie has zombies, and a horror film doesn't have too."

She's laughing, head thrown back, hair tumbling like it belongs in a shampoo commercial, and the sound is coming from deep inside her chest and it's absolutely beautiful. Even as she gets it under control and lifts her head again to look at him she's still laughing softly, "That's your brilliant insight, a zombie movie has zombies."

He's doing his best to look affronted, and failing miserably. "Hey laugh all you want but a zombie finally was involved making my original theory correct." He definitely looks proud of himself. Just like he did when it really was the CIA, and it was the mob, before you know it they're going to have a case where ninjas really are involved.

She smiles softly, tipping her head forward so that her hair falls around her face. But then she's tilting her head to the side just enough that he can see her face again as she says, "I do love hearing your theory's."

"You do?" He's legitimately shocked by her admission and he's staring at her trying to get a read on where this is coming from.

"Of course I do." She shifts in her seat sitting upright and then turning to face him, "You didn't think I kept you around for your superior investigating techniques, did you?" The amused grin is back as she takes a sip of her drink.

"Well I…" He's at a loss, for what must be the fifth time this evening. This woman, she's always keeping him on his toes.

She takes pity on him though, "Relax Rick," she reaches out and lays her hand over his; it's getting to be a practiced gesture these days. "I'm just glad that you're back."

"Where'd I go?" He knew she noticed, he just hadn't realized that she'd been genuinely concerned by it, and not just irked at his stupidity.

She falters, "I don't know…" she squeezes his fingers gently trying to communicate that she's already forgiven him for it, "but you definitely were going somewhere for a while."

"Kate," he sighs flipping his hand over so that he can hold her hand too. "I'm sorry," he tells her hoping that the sincerity in his voice is enough, to make up for his recent behavior that has worried her more that he realized.

She shakes her head, "Don't be." She's smiling calmly at him, "You're here being the wonderful, charming, entertaining, storytelling partner that I love and that's what matters."

He swallows hard, watching her take the last sip of the scotch she ordered, seemingly oblivious to what she just said. A strangled, "Kate…" finally falls from his lips as his heart feels like it's going to rocket out of his chest.

Setting the glass down she turns to look at him, a huge smile still on her face, "Rick?" She asks, looking a little amused.

"That… that you love?" he manages to stutter, his face a mixture of shock and hope.

She turns and looks at him the smile on her face changing from one of joy to a softer loving smile, "Yeah, Castle that I love." The smile fades, as she watches him, her eyes are glittering, the gold flecks catching the soft light.

He doesn't know how to respond, and she doesn't have anything else to add. So they just sit looking at each other for a long moment, and the bar staff has the good sense not to approach the boss while they're like this.

Eventually she pulls her bottom lip in-between her teeth, gathering her courage, "I should go," she says softly, squeezing his fingers and then untangling them as she stands up from the barstool.

"Kate…" He's not ready to let her go.

"See you tomorrow Castle," she says softly in his ear as she leans into brush a kiss across his cheek. Then before he can register anything, she's striding across the bar with a little swing in her hips.

Before she makes it to the stairs he's scrambling after her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kate!" He calls across the bar to her back as she disappears up the stairs to street level, but the name is lost in the piano music and bar noise, so he refrains from calling her name again until he hit the stairwell, "Beckett!" But the door closes and he's taking the stairs two steps at a time following her out onto the street, "Kate." She stops where she's standing and slowly turns around to face him as he takes the last few steps to her, "Kate?"

"Castle?" She cocks her head, and he can see the war of emotions passing over her eyes, relief that he chased her, fear over what comes next.

He suddenly can't seem to find the right words, "Did you mean…" he pulls in a deep breath, he shouldn't be this out of breath, and tries again, "Did you really mean that?"

"Mean what?" She blinks at him, her face an emotionless mask, trying to keep it together whatever happens next. She doesn't think she'd be capable of it without her years on the force, but she's damn grateful for it. She slips her hands into her coat pockets so that they can ball into fists and express some of the tension she's feeling in this moment.

He mentally curses her for that deadly cop calm that she's using to make him work so hard, but he forges on, they've made it this far he's not going to give up now. Trying to project the same level of calm she has, he asks, "That you love me?"

"Rick…" she bites her lip and looks at the ground quickly, and for a split second he finds himself admiring the way the light from the street lamps is haloing around her head in the mist. But then she speaks again, to the floor, "I…" but she doesn't get any further than that before she snaps her head up again and looking him in the eye, "why would I tell you that if I didn't?"

"I…" he goes to reach for her, thinking that if maybe he can just touch her he'll be able to get a better handle on the situation, "I don't know…" but he decides better of it in that moment and instead just uses his hands to gesticulate his point, he has to do something with them. "You told me that you don't remember what happened on the day you were shot but I know that you did." He's not proud of it but his voice cracks on the last phrase, the all the hurt that he's been poorly managing the last few weeks came pouring out.

She gasps his name, "Castle…" one hand flies to her mouth, "Rick…" and the other reaches out to land on his arm, "Oh god how'd you…" she shakes her head, "it doesn't matter…" she pulls her hand back tucking her hair behind her ear, "I wasn't ready for that." She stamps her foot out of frustration with herself, "it's stupid…" she looks out over the street, trying to pull herself together, "I should have told you…" and failing miserably, "shit…" she focus' back on him, "Castle…" her voice breaks, his name on a sob, "Rick…"

He takes pity on her and steps just a little bit closer. He's been there through so much else; he can walk her through this. "But you love me?" he asks, she nods her head, and so he asked the question that's been plaguing him for weeks, "like a friend?"

She's now the one that steps closer to them, personal space basically evaporating. Softly she shakes her head, "Not just like a friend," she whispers, a hand coming up to hover above his arm.

"How then Kate?" he's desperate now.

Her hand lands solidly on his bicep and she squeezes, "I love you Castle." She pulls in a deep breath, "I am head over heels in love with you, Rick."

"Why now?" It's a plaintive cry of trying to understand why now and wanting just to move past the last three weeks.

She huffs, taking a step back, disengaging herself from him. "Because I think that I'm finally able to accept everything that happened on that day."

It takes everything in him not to follow and try to get to the bottom of this. "Including what I said?"

She can see the distress on his face, and isn't quite sure why it's there, but she can't lie to him anymore, "Including what you said…" his face doesn't change and she realizes that she was right two weeks ago when she said that he's moved on, he wasn't stepping back to protect his heart, he was moving on. "But if you don't feel that way anymore I understand," and then she's walking away hair bouncing in the mist and he's scrambling after her again.

"Kate!" he exclaims, catching up to her and snagging her elbow, forcing her to turn around and face him again. "Where are you going?"

"Home." Simplest answer in the world.

He shakes his head, a small smile forming. "You are infuriating. You know that right?"

Her mouth, twitches and her eyes soften, "I've heard something about that," but she doesn't smile back, not yet.

He drops her elbow but doesn't back away, "Fortunately it's one of the many reasons that I do." His voice has dropped, rolling through him and washing over her.

"Do what?" she asks, on an exhale, relief flowing through her.

He shifts closer her, wading into her personal bubble as slowly as he could manage. "Love you," he finally answered.

"Okay then." She sighs, on the verge of tears happiness and relief the moisture glittering in her eyes as she steps closer wrapping one hand around his lapel as the other lands on his shoulder. "So what now?" she asks with a sly smile brushing her nose against his as her breath ghosts across his face.

He's delirious with how close she is, and so relieved that everything is falling into place, that even as his hands land solidly on her hips his mouth runs away without him, "Well I was thinking."

Fortunately she has her wits about her, "Castle, shut up," she breathes against his lips before they're oh so softly slipping over his, and the hand that was resting on his shoulder has wrapped around the base of his neck. She's smiling against his lips, as he becomes an active participant, the hands that were on her hips wrap around her back pulling her flush against him.

Air became necessity and she's the one to pull back, resting her forehead against his so that green meets blue, and the hand that tangled in his lapel comes up to cup his cheek, her thumb brushing over his cheek bone, "I love you so much."

His smile could light up the city, "I love you too," he kisses her again quickly. "Oh god, Kate, you have no idea how much I love you," he whispers into the small space between them.

"We should go," she finally whispers, not making and movements to untangle herself.

He's grinning, his hands slowly moving on her back, tracing circles. "Not afraid of the dark are we Detective?"

"Never know, there might be zombies," she's grinning back even as she presses another kiss to his lips, before stepping back and taking his hand in hers.

"Seriously, how cool was that though!" The little kid in him was back. The entertaining, creative, charming, wonderful man that he was, it was all back.

"Castle…" she groans. She couldn't be more relieved, but the side of him that was fascinated with ninjas, mobsters and zombies wasn't want she wanted to focus on at this moment.

"Sorry," he tugs her back to him, so that she collides with his chest. "I'll relive the awesomeness that was this case later," he captures her lips this time, taking them deeper than any previous kiss.

She's struggling to pull in air, as she raggedly whispers in his ear, "Take me home Rick."

* * *

**Confession this was supposed to be a one-shot but I ways inspired by your reaction to the original part and inspired by it that I wrote this for you. Thank you so much for reading it and I would love to hear your thoughts.**

**Babyrose  
**


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